The smoothness of polished grain, especially rice, is an important quality parameter in the grain milling industry. The obtained smooth surface is an expression of the achieved quality of the polishing. The assessment of the smoothness is commonly manually done based on touch and feel and underlies therefore the subjective perception of the respective assessor.
Generally, it is difficult to judge the quality of grain especially rice which is available in number of varieties which are different in quality, assessed e.g. as high grade or low grade quality. The assessment of quality, i.e. smoothness of rice, is determined based on personal judgment which requires at least two samples to be compared. In the absence of any methods that are supported from a scientific view point, the rice thus produced has often tended to be irregular in quality and this has often been the subject of concern.
Therefore there is a need in the art for a method to determine the smoothness of grains, especially rice grains, objectively.